Historical Hawaii Newspapers at Chroniclingamerica.com

BY Joan Hori and Martha Chantiny –A National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) website, Chronicling America provides free public access to digitized American newspapers published from 1836 to 1922 from various states, including Hawaii. The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii at Manoa, the project to digitize various microfilmed Hawaii’s newspapers:

The Library of Congress will aggregate and permanently maintain the digitized newspapers. Eventually, Chronicling America will have digitized newspapers from every U.S. state.

Chronicling America also features historical essays about the digitized newspapers, topic guides (those relating to Hawaii include Hawaii’s statehood and leprosy in Hawaii), and a directory of most of the newspapers that have ever been published in the United States.

As the “rough draft” of history, newspapers in Hawaii documented and shaped historical moments, including the leprosy epidemic in Hawaii, the labor strikes in the plantations, and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. Students and scholars research historical newspaper to learn about everyday life in different times (e.g. the opinions and cost of living back then), historical events, and the fashion and products featured in the advertisements. Students and scholars study the news articles, editorials, and advertisements to research about political and social movements and language use in different time periods. Community members conduct genealogical research, searching for content with their relatives’ names.

For more information on the Chronicling America project, visit the following websites:

Here are links to a few articles that covered significant historical events in Hawaii’s history:

“Kilauea Crater Continues in Eruption”
“She has established over among the hot cracks a Devil’s Kitchen in which the guide tells you she prepares her fiery luaus and roasts the legion of departed souls of those who were not good.”
Hilo tribune., February 28, 1905, Image 1http://chroniclingamerica.com/lccn/sn82016339/1905-02-28/ed-1/seq-1/

The University of Hawaii at Mānoa serves approximately 20,000 students pursuing 225 different degrees. Coming from every Hawaiian island, every state in the nation, and more than 100 countries, UHM students matriculate in an enriching environment for the global exchange of ideas. For more information, visit http://manoa.hawaii.edu